Midland hindered by gremlins

MF1 racing was also on track again, with three drivers dealing with small problems throuw the day. They worked through various programs of setup work and extensive tyre testing, something the team has been doing for the last couple of days. This test is normally the last test where the old interim EJ15B car was used.

Driver: Tiago Monteiro
Chassis: M16-02
Engine: Toyota
Fastest Lap: 1.13.81
Number of Laps: 55
Distance: 220 km

Test Summary: Tiago encountered a day of mixed fortunes: a minor incident in the morning resulted in the team having to work very hard to get the car back on track in the afternoon. Fortunately, this enabled us to complete more useful set-up work and tyre development. We look forward to making further progress in Barcelona next week, where Tiago will commence the three-day test on Tuesday.

Driver: Adrian Sutil
Chassis: EJ15B-03
Engine: Toyota
Fastest Lap: 1.13.52
Number of Laps: 55
Distance: 220 km

Test Summary: Adrian turned in a very impressive performance today. His approach to familiarising himself with the car and his motivation to consistently improve his lap times with every new set of tyres reinforced the team's faith in his abilities. We look forward to working with him again in the future.

Driver: Christijan Albers
Chassis: EJ15B-03
Engine: Toyota
Fastest Lap: 1.13.09
Number of Laps: 53
Distance: 212 km

Test Summary: Christijan completed our tyre program today in what was the team's last planned testing session with the interim car. Our engineers have a lot of very useful data to analyse over the coming few days.

"This week has been very useful. We've made more progress with the set up and have a much better understanding of the car. We have also made a great step forward with the tyres.

Weather conditions have made it difficult to look at subtle changes in test items on the car, so we have mainly concentrated on major changes, as opposed to fine-tuning. The last two days have been difficult, mainly due to the limited time we've had on track. However, we're confident we have a handle on the few issues we had to resolve yesterday.

Tiago is thankfully okay after a small off this morning, and the guys did a very good job getting the car back on track again for the afternoon. Heading into Barcelona next week, a track we are very familiar with, will give us an even better chance to look at development. Overall, it has been a good week for us. We've been progressively shaving our lap times and developing in many different areas."

"Today was not quite as productive as some of the days we've had this week, but that's the nature of the sport. It was a tough run for me, and we had to deal with a few problems. On a positive note, we have a much better understanding of the new compounds Bridgestone is giving us, and that is what we will have to concentrate on in Barcelona next week, in preparation for Bahrain.

Overall, though, it's been a great week. We've definitely seen some significant improvements. The new car is evolving and continues to cover a large amount of miles without any major issues. I'm really happy with the reliability, and the lap times are improving every day.

I'm looking forward to running in Barcelona next week and getting a chance to further develop the car."